*UPDATE* The Seoul of the South tour is now open to the public! Visit SeoulOfTheSouthTour.com for more details
Thanks so much to Explore Gwinnett for treating my husband and me to a FANTASTIC day. The Explore Gwinnett #SeoulOfTheSouth Korean Restaurant Tour is a delicious way to spend the day.
With stops at The Stone Grill, Honey Pig, Suwanee Chicken and Pizza, and Arte3 this Korean restaurant tour covers a lot of ground. The tour varies the restaurants visited so every tour will be a little different. Our large group piled into a trolley ( armed with a cheat sheet of common Korean sayings like “hello”/ Ahn -Young- ha-sae-Yo, “please” /Ju-Sae-Yo, “thank you”/Kam-Sa-Hap-Ni-Da) and headed on our way.
The Stone Grill was our first stop. At first I thought it was the same as other Korean Grill restaurants that I’ve been to previously but I was wrong. This one served barbecue ribs along with melting cheese and corn. I’d seen this on the Internet but never had it in person until now.
The ribs were coated in a spicy sauce and served on one side of a metal tray. The other side of the tray was filled with shredded cheese, diced mild peppers and corn. The tray is put over a hot surface in the middle of the dinner table and the cheese begins to bubble and melt. Diners take their spicy ribs, swirl them in the cheese and enjoy. The creamy cheese does temper the spice of the barbecue sauce a bit. It all works together surprisingly well.
The Stone Grill serves traditional Korean barbecue as well. Beef, pork, chicken and seafood are cooked on the table top stove in various sauces along with rice, lettuce and tons of tasty banchan, a combination of cooked and fermented side dishes.
Honey Pig was the next stop on our Explore Gwinnett #SeoulOfTheSouth Korean Restaurant Tour. Named for the sweet meat of a tender young pig, Honey Pig serves up its delicious dishes in a completely different way. The food is all cooked at your table top however the cooking vessel is one I’ve never seen before. The surface is modeled after a cast-iron pot lid inspired by efficient Korean cooks. The cooks realized that the surface of the pot lid became extremely hot while cooking soups and rice and figured that it would be a waste of energy not to use that heat, so they began using the pot lid as a cooking surface as well.
The meal started with some delicious pork belly followed by short ribs and chicken thighs. Kimchi is also cooked a top the lid.
After the meat and kimchi of finished our chef returned to cook fried rice for the table.
After this we were off to Suwanee Chicken and Pizza to try Korean Fried Chicken and Korean style pizza.
Korean Fried Chicken, the other KFC, is made super crispy by twice-frying the batter dipped chicken. The chicken can be served as is or coated in sauce and topped with sesame seeds. We were served whole pieces of chicken as well as bite size nuggets.
The pizza was also a bit out of the ordinary, topped with both sweet and white potatoes . They served traditional style pizza as well.
Our last stop on the Explore Gwinnett #SeoulOfTheSouth Korean Restaurant Tour was only a few doors down so we walked over to Arte3 for dessert. We were served “bungeoppang”, a fish shaped pastry with red bean filling, and waffles with whipped cream and fruit.
A cold treat of milky shave ice with fruit and red beans was served along with Korean iced coffee and other drinks.
Gwinnett County has tons more Korean restaurants as well as restaurants with cuisine from all over the world, it’s definitely worth a visit. They will be opening up the Seoul of the South tour to the public in 2017 so be on the lookout for that and sign up when you can. You will absolutely enjoy it. I’ve heard they’s be adding a karaoke tour, that would be a real treat. Food, drinks AND singing?! That’s my kind of night!
Keep up with Gwinnett county events for the latest fun food tours and festivals at Explore Gwinnett’s website and on social media- TWITTER, INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK
Explore Gwinnett #SeoulOfTheSouth Korean Restaurant Tour
